Therefore you must open wide and extend your thoughts not only to the oven or the flour-bin, but to the distant field and the entire land, which bears and brings to us daily bread and every sort of sustenance. For when you mention and pray for daily bread, you pray for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy daily bread and, on the other hand, against everything which interferes with it. It is a brief and simple word, but it has a very wide scope. Commenting on the Fourth Petition in his Large Catechism he said, Here, now, we consider the poor bread basket, the necessaries of our body and of the temporal life. Martin Luther was well aware of the vast reach of this Petition.
We give thanks for them, too, pray for their provisions, and recognize them as instruments of God’s grace. There’s a whole cloud of people who in a figurative way, sit at the table with us, from the farmer to the stocking clerk. Whether or not we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” the provision is there on our table, for some meager, for others plentiful.įor those of us who pray from the abundance of our tables, Jesus’ intention in the Fourth Petition was more like, “Give us this day our daily gratitude.” Our thankfulness would include all those who took part in setting our tables. “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matt 5:45). What’s more, the table is set by God’s grace on believers and unbelievers, the world over. This grace from God is a gift we take too much for granted. As proud of our labor as we may be for “putting food on the table,” each meal is a heavenly sent CARE package. However, many of us, through the gift of God’s grace as well, are able to fill our pantries through our daily work. We are called to be God’s answer to the prayers of millions for their “daily bread.” “For I was hungry and you gave me food” (Matt 25:35). Today, hundreds of nations have joined the world-wide effort “to feed the hungry” through organizations that provide “daily bread” to millions of empty tables. Most Americans participated in the funding, sending, and distribution. These contained basic rations of milk powder, cheese, rice, and beans. In the post-Second World War, the United States distributed 100 million CARE packages to war ravaged areas. These are blessings we are called to share. Health, work, and food, all carry the same label, “Provided by the Kingdom of Heaven.” The health for our labor comes from the same source. Even though the horn of plenty on our table is there as the fruit of our labor, that is also a gift of God’s grace. Grace has a crunchy feel on our mouth, it is tasty on our tongue, and our lips sip it as we imbue that cup of hot cocoa. So that with each bite we partake in, we hear “by grace are you fed, and that is not of yourselves” (cf. The food on our table has been set there by the Father’s gracious hand. The prayer assures us that our daily bread is a provision of the “exceeding riches of his grace” (Eph 2:7). The petition begins by pointing us toward God’s abundant grace.
0 kommentar(er)
